***
Angel awakened mid afternoon to Cordelia’s scent surrounding him. Gathering the pillow closer, he breathed deep and in his mind separated out each minute scent that made up the essence of her still clinging to the pillowcase.
Smothering his own laugh upon realizing he was sleeping on the wrong side of the bed, Angel guessed he had moved over to where Cordelia’s body had lain during her nap. Could he be any more pathetic, he wondered just before noting the way the sheets tented over his erection.
That answers that, Angel groaned remembering that he’d also been dreaming about her.
Flinging the covers aside, Angel stared down at his aroused body willing himself to relax. Not that it had ever obeyed him before, but it was worth a try. Get a grip you randy prick, he tried to focus on the random thought, but it only seemed to come out as a lewd suggestion.
“That’s what I’m trying to avoid,” Angel growled. There would be no gripping of any kind as long as the only thing he could think of was his best friend.
Certainly not while she went around pretending he was big brother material. Blast it, if Angel wasn’t close to tracing the Chase family tree just to prove to her that he was not on it. Launching himself out of bed with a frustrated move, Angel stalked naked into the bathroom.
Emerging almost an hour later, Angel discovered Cordelia standing at his bedside. He hastily belted his robe before she turned around to face him. For some reason, she was changing his sheets as if she knew he’d been wallowing in her scent all night long and come to steal them away before he really made a fool of himself.
Angel tried to keep his voice steady as he asked, “What’s this?”
“A little modern magic,” Cordelia told him as she met him at the end of the bed. “My gift to you for taking such good care of me yesterday.”
“Sheets?”
“Not just any sheets,” she quirked a brow and smiled. “I promise you’ll never sleep the same way again.”
Glancing at the pile of discarded bed linen on the chair, Angel realized she was right. Unless Cordelia’s scent came with the sheets, it wouldn’t be the same. “Were you so uncomfortable with the old sheets?”
“No comparison, Angel,” she told him as she reclined on the bed letting her hair fan out behind her. The top she wore was sleeveless and had thin crisscrossed straps across her back leaving most of her skin exposed. “Mmm, it’s heaven.”
Angel felt certain that was a fair description of what he was seeing right now. It was not like Cordelia hadn’t been in his bed before, but there was just something sensual in the way she spoke and how her tempting curves stood out across the blue cotton sheets.
“Go ahead,” Cordelia encouraged. “Touch them.”
Reaching forward, Angel barely managed to figure out that she was talking about the sheets and not the delicious swell of her breasts. He picked up the edge of the loose top sheet running his hand along the fabric. Admittedly, he had to agree the quality surpassed anything in the Hyperion’s linen closet.
“Nice.”
“Is that all you have to say?” Cordelia bounded off the bed to stand beside him, her eyes sparkling with mischief and gazing intently into his. “They’re more than nice.”
The purr behind those words caught him off-guard. Did friends talk to friends with a throaty promise in their voice? Curious to find out, Angel answered back, “Guess I could give them another chance. Test them out.”
“Then lose the robe. I won’t peek,” she promised crossing her fingers up near her collarbone in plain sight. “Feel them on your bare skin.”
Her fingers toyed with the end of his belt, but Cordelia made no move to tug despite her curiosity knowing that there was nothing beneath that robe except Angel. She licked at her lips with nervous excitement as she watched a dawning light appear on Angel’s face.
Cordelia could not hide the want in her eyes and for the first time Angel allowed himself to see it.
Lifting his hand to her face, he traced her cheek with his fingers brushing his thumb across her lips leaving them tingling. Throwing caution to the wind, he responded, “I’d rather feel them on your bare skin.”
Desire darkened in his eyes as he spoke and Cordelia could only gasp at the impact of his direct stare. All she could do was listen to the sound of her own thundering pulse as it filled her ears. Her moment of triumph in realizing that Angel did want her was eclipsed by her own escalating need.
Leaning into his touch, Cordelia murmured his name like a caress against his hand. “Angel.”
“That excites you? My touching you,” Angel felt as if the blinders had finally been lifted off his senses.
Softly, she confirmed his discovery, “Yes.”
“Oh God.” Was it even possible for a vampire’s prayers to be answered? Seemingly, yes.
Angel closed his arms around her tucking his head down on her shoulder as relief washed over him like a sudden downpour in the desert. His hands moved over her shoulders and back, pressed flat, his fingers splayed open to touch every inch he could reach.
“You smell so good,” he drank her scent in deep. “I’m like a bee buzzing around the perfect rose. I can’t get enough of you, Cordy. Guess you noticed.”
“No,” Cordelia admitted, puzzled by his confession. “You’ve been ignoring me.”
Angel corrected, “Trying too. Pretending my body doesn’t react every time you come near. You know how much your friendship means to me and I don’t want anything to ruin it. Not again.”
“Then don’t let it,” Cordelia inched her fingers along his chest beneath the navy robe. “Best way to do that is to give me what I want.”
Reacting to her impish smile as she brushed her fingers across his nipple, Angel let his own finger curve around her shoulder, one knuckle circling around her nipple as it puckered up against the thin material of her red top. Then his hand splayed open against her ribs moving back up to map the curves of her breast.
“What would that be, Miss Chase?”
“You.”
Infinite slowness brought them to their first kiss. It lasted moments, only a touch of their lips, a taste of curiosity. They parted no longer than it took to gaze intensely into each other’s eyes, communicating recognition of the feelings that kiss evoked.
Then hungry need took over as voracious kisses followed. Those deep devouring clenches came interspersed with soft nips and the tender sucking of her lips and tongue as Angel explored her mouth with his own.
Cordelia moaned her pleasure at the sensations he evoked, her body humming with a desire that fed the ache low in her belly. Reacting on instinct, Cordelia returned his kisses inventing a few of her own along the way. Her hands were everywhere as they tangled in his short spiky hair, gripped his shoulders and snuck under his robe to curl around to his muscular back.
Angel’s delight in her enthusiasm was evident in the smile that flirted at his lips in between kisses. His touches were more deliberate and designed to heighten her arousal as well as his own. When his hands slid beneath the stretchy red top, Angel found nothing to hinder his touch as his fingers curved around the full globes of her breasts.
“How’s that for titillation?” Cordelia sounded a breathy laugh into his ear just before nibbling on his earlobe and sucking it into her mouth.
His smirk appeared as Angel plumped her breasts in his skillful hands, his fingers teasing her sensitive flesh and tweaking the soft velvet tips into hard little points. Angel bent down and sucked one into his mouth fabric and all eliciting a sharp cry from Cordelia who grabbed him by the head to pull him up to her mouth.
Deeper & desperate their kisses became. Cordelia shifted her hips against him as she felt his hard member pressing into her thigh. Her leg hooked over his and Angel let out a groan of need as she moved her hips to bring herself into closer contact with his engorged sex. Reaching between them, he deftly unbuttoned her low-waisted pants and unzipped them with ease slipping his fingers through the downy curls.
“Wait!” Cordelia’s sudden cry startled them both. She hadn’t planned to say that, but her mouth opened and the word came out.
Angel slowly moved his hand back up to her waist now worried that she was having second thoughts about being with him this way. Then it occurred to him that Cordelia might be afraid of the likelihood of waking up tomorrow with Angelus.
“Do you not want this?” Angel asked despite the ache in his chest and loins. “We can stop. We’re taking things a little fast.”
“We’ve taken forever,” she told him smiling. Then with a husky promise, claimed “I do want this and you so much.”
He smoothed his hands up and down her nearly bare back, asking confusedly, “Then why stop me?”
Good question. she asked herself even a she circled her arms around his neck. “I just need to know. Is this just for now, today, something to stave off the cold? I want to know what to expect tomorrow.”
“More of the same,” Angel answered cupping her face in both hands. He kissed her until she melted in his arms. Starry-eyed, she trailed her fingers down to the ties of his robe starting to release the belt from its knot.
One large hand clamped down on hers. “Wait.”
Arching an eyebrow, Cordelia did just that even though the temptation to keep on pulling at that belt made her fingers itch. She dropped it, sliding her hand back up to his chest where the demon claw marks were now barely visible.
“There’s no reason to be scared,” he assured her. “You know I’d never put you in any danger. Even from me if I can help it.”
“I’m not scared,” Cordelia drew a random pattern on the hard wall of his chest with her fingertip. Thinking this was the beginning of the big Angelus-is-no-threat speech, she lowered her eyes and tried not to give away the fact that she already knew his secret.
“Cordy, I love you so much,” his words stunned her. Cordelia’s eyes darted back up to meet his. Angel curled his finger under her chin. “You’re my blunt voice of reason, my humanity, my heart. You complete me. For so long, I thought there was nothing I could give you. Not even myself.”
Tears of happiness glistened brightening the hazel orbs to a golden hue. “But…”
Cutting off her protest, Angel swept his thumb across her lips. “I have to tell you something. My soul…it’s safe now. There are no more worries about losing it. It’s secure permanently.”
As Angel dropped his hand away awaiting the response to everything he’d said, he didn’t have to wait long. A smile of megawatt brilliance appeared along with the return of that flirtatious glint in her eye. “So you’re saying bliss can be had by all?”
“I can give you a lifetime of fleeting moments of bliss, Cordelia,” he told her with a confidence that only wavered when he added, “but can I make you happy?”
“You already do. Angel…,” she stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “I’m in love with you too.”
“Really?” He just looked so cute asking for more confirmation that Cordelia caught herself rolling her eyes.
“No, I was joking,” she told him. “Love a homely vamp like you? Pfft! As for bliss, there’s probably nothing to see under that robe anyway.”
Then she snagged the belt and yanked until the robe fell open. In a small wondrous voice though she was aiming for amusing quip, “Nope, nothing at all,” but managed to sound close to breathless.
Nothing except Angel all impressively impressive, she gaped. When her gaze finally lifted back to his face, Cordelia saw passion burning in those sinful eyes. He’d let her look her fill without saying a word, but she wasn’t done yet.
“Let me,” was all she asked.
Staying just out of arms reach, she moved behind him, curling her hands over his shoulders to grasp the collar of his robe. Pulling it over his massive shoulders and down his arms, Cordelia watched as the robe slid into a blue puddle around his feet.
Angel’s chest rumbled with a deep moan as Cordelia’s hands, warm against his cool skin slid across the bunched muscles of his back. Her fingers traced the edge of the ‘A’ in his tattoo. Then her lips scorched his flesh at the center of his spine between his shoulder blades.
Moving again, Cordelia met Angel’s hungry gaze halfway there letting her hand trail down his back to palm the solid curve of his ass. Back to the front again, Cordelia appreciatively let her eyes wander up and down the hard male body that was even more spectacular than her imagination.
All that salty goodness…mine, Cordelia lifted a finger to her mouth sucking on the tip.
Angel didn’t need a reflection to confirm Cordelia’s impression. He could read it in her eyes and in the impish smile that flirted over her mouth. “Like what you see, baby?”
“I see a lot I like.” Cordelia watched him step closer and shivered in anticipation of his touch. Taking that last moment to glance down again at his aroused flesh and up the length of his sculpted torso to his eyes, she added with a cheeky grin, “Baby.”
The moment her wandering fingertips grazed his hard flesh, Angel wondered if he’d be able to pull off playing the masterful lover to this sensuous vixen when he suddenly felt like a horny teenager wanting nothing more than to bury himself inside her. Not to be outdone Angel distracted her with drugging kisses as he undressed Cordelia.
Then turning her in his arms, Angel kept his hands on her belly one above the other as he nuzzled her neck. His hands lifted to cup her breasts as he whispered words that spoke to her beauty in her ear. Cordelia held onto his thighs, her bare bottom pressing against his hard shaft, a moan on her lips as Angel took a step back.
Dropping down on his knee, he pressed his lips to the tattoo gracing the small of her back, the faces of the sun and moon entwined. There was only one mark that might be more appropriate, Angel knew, but this wasn’t the time to delve into his demon’s fantasies.
As Angel rose to his feet, he stepped close to the bed to pull the loose top sheet from its spot on the mattress. Wrapping it around them both, playfully reminding Cordelia, “I think we’re supposed to be testing these sheets. Was this what you had in mind?”
Cordelia realized too late that he was backing her up toward the bed and she let out a squeal of laughter when they both tumbled onto the mattress. Holding on to the edges of the sheet, Angel whipped it over their heads completely covering them up. Light filtering through the sheets saved them from complete darkness.
“Is this an undercover operation?” Cordelia giggled, but soon stopped laughing as Angel’s hands and mouth came into contact with her body.
Tickling and teasing in between kisses and touches that left Cordelia drenched with wanting, Angel intended to memorize every millimeter of her smooth skin before allowing himself release. Above them, the sheets slid over their bare flesh adding another level of stimulation.
The cotton threads shifted over her face as Cordelia cried out in want pleading with Angel as his mouth teased close to her center, pressing kisses into her inner thigh and the soft forest of chestnut curls. Cordelia stared straight down the length of her torso between the valley of her breasts and along the sloping path ringed by her navel directly meeting Angel’s potent gaze.
His knowing fingers worked their magic and his agile tongue played like a Riverdance on her silken folds. So close. So close to the edge, but not quite. Angel kept building her pleasure earning raves as Cordelia noisily encouraged him. Her hands wandered from her breasts, down to her inner thighs alternately tangling in his short hair and gripping at his shoulders. Slowly driven to frenzy, Cordelia looked straight down into his eyes again, this time as he sucked the swollen bud of her clit into his mouth.
Then Cordelia’s orgasm spiraled to its peak as Angel fingers moved along her slick channel curving in just the right spot to send her flying. Her head thrashed along the mattress as Angel’s tongue lapped up the liquid ambrosia of her sex.
Cordelia’s flushed face brushed against the sheet clinging to her dewy skin as Angel prowled up the length of her body. She whipped the sheet aside tossing it to the end of the bed and curled up on to her knees as he came up onto his leaving them face to face again.
“My turn,” she flashed that teasing grin.
Angel thought of her going down on him and nearly fell over. He didn’t want her to think it was expected and almost suggested to her that it was not necessary for her to reciprocate. Making him, he felt certain, the only man—pire in existence to refuse such an offer from his mate, especially considering his current state of arousal.
Mate? The thought caught Angel by surprise, but somehow it brought a warm feeling along with it. They’d have to talk about that when he finally let her out of his bed. Sometime next Tuesday, maybe.
Reconsidering his plan to simply take her now, Angel decided they had all the time in the world tonight for anything they wanted. Since Cordy hadn’t been specific, Angel decided to play along. “Just give me a hint. Tell me what you want.”
“I’m way past subtle hints,” Cordelia poked a finger in the center of his chest and gave a tiny push. Cooperating, Angel fell back on the mattress propping himself up with his elbows for support as he waited to let her have her way with him. “I want what I want and I plan to take it.”
Angel licked at his lips as he controlled the urge to lift her into his lap and let her ride him. “Go ahead. Just don’t expect me to keep my hands to myself.”
Looking head to toe at the long expanse of his body, Cordelia hardly knew where to begin. Trailing her fingers up from his feet to his thighs, she felt the heavily corded muscle beneath her touch and sounded out a little moue of delight at the sensation.
The direction of her hands suggested she was just going for it and Angel watched as her fingers crept closer and closer to his hard shaft. Other than the sensual rub of the sheets against it as he lay in the cradle of Cordelia’s hips and thighs, it remained eager for attention.
Then Cordelia surprised him. Her hands moved to his outer thighs and then propped on the bed on either side of his hips as she crawled up to kiss just the corner of his mouth. “Do you like my kisses?”
“You have to ask?” Angel curled a hand into the cascade of her hair as he captured her mouth again.
Parting on a moan and reminding himself that he was letting Cordelia play a little, Angel contented himself with toying with her hair as she moved her mouth to yet another sensitive area. She sucked softly at the flesh of his neck eliciting a deeper groan and her hands wandered over his broad shoulders.
“Are you as sensitive here as I am?” she queried curiously as her tongue lashed across one flat nipple and the small brown circle around it. From his body’s reaction, it seemed clear. “Mmm, you are.”
By the time Cordelia worked her way down his torso, Angel was close to losing it. His control was quickly crumbling under the onslaught of her hands and mouth. There was a hint of topaz in his eyes as he spoke next, “Practice teasing me later, vixen. If you don’t put your mouth on me right now, we’re going to skip the rest of your turn and move on.”
Reminded of his predatory nature, Cordelia realized it wasn’t really in that nature to give her the freedom to explore her curiosity with his body. Giving her this chance to play came on a knife’s point edge of control and Cordelia suddenly wanted to find out how far she could push him. She gripped him moving her hand in a tight ring along the shaft marveling at his smooth hardness while her eyes feasted on Angel’s every reaction to her touch.
Cordelia felt the impact of Angel’s lusty encouragements and urgent undertone with the inward clenching of her loins. Her mouth brushed over his velvet tip tasting the salty drop of fluid beading there. Licking her lips, she met his intent gaze with a quick glance before taking him into her mouth. Her head bobbed up and down as she hollowed her cheeks and sucked on the broad crown, her fingers curling beneath and working along the rest of his shaft.
Whether seconds or minutes ticked by, Angel neither knew nor cared. He kept his eyes glued on Cordelia, watching her wet mouth move over him. Until finally, Angel pulled her up the length of his body setting her down so that she pressed fully into him.
One hand stayed low on her back, keeping her hips and belly in tight contact with his erection. The other tangled in her hair as he savagely claimed her mouth, his tongue invading and dueling with hers. Flipping them both over, Angel spread her thighs taking a moment to gaze down at the swollen pink folds of her sex still glistening with her arousal.
“Baby, I can’t wait a minute more to have you,” Angel explained needlessly. That was all too apparent and Cordelia was far from being upset that her turn had come to an end. There would be more time for fun and games later.
“Please, Angel,” she wanted him badly enough not to care that it sounded like begging. Lifting her knees a little higher, Cordelia dropped her hand to her aching center, fingers sliding along her slick flesh as she hissed at the sensation.
Fisting his turgid length, Angel rubbed the tip along her folds and the feminine fingers that moved to assist his entry. He rocked his hips back and forth, his hand now cupping her bottom tilting her hips higher, thrusting steadily through the hot core that clenched down against his intrusion and alternately opened up to let him in.
Wrapping him in her intimate hold, Cordelia circled his shoulders and tucked her legs around him as her hips bucked upward meeting his in that timeless rhythm. Heaven and Earth could have come crashing down around them unnoticed. Words of love and lust crossed their lips between succulent kisses on this first journey of passion.
The ecstasy they found in each others arms peaked almost simultaneously. Cordelia cried out nearly unintelligibly, her eyes open and making pinpoint contact with his as she crashed over the edge into oblivion. Her inner muscles fluttered around Angel’s engorged member as he pistoned in and out thrusting deep until he threw his head back and called out her name.
They held each other tightly, Angel’s face buried along the curve of her throat as he listened to the steady pulse against his ear, breathing deeply to memorize the scents surrounding them at this moment. Cordelia palmed the nape of his neck as he softly kissed the pulse at its strongest point, a little gasp at her throat as she felt it quicken in curiosity and anticipation.
Angel read the question in her eyes as he slowly withdrew and shifted his weight to the side. His thumb trailed over the spot that would one day bear his mark. “Maybe later.”
“What else comes later?” Cordelia asked as her fingers tapped on her hip as she was propped up by one hand on her side.
“You again.”
Eyes sparkling, she grinned, “How soon might that be?”
“Maybe sooner than you think,” Angel leaned forward to kiss her. “I only hope we won’t have Wes and Gunn barging in on us. Immovably chained to this bed is not what I have in mind.”
“Dunno. That could be fun for a little while,” laughed Cordelia who knew they had nothing to fear from their friends. Not tonight anyway. “Lucky for you that Fred has convinced those two busybody friends of ours that she wanted to go to the carnival tonight.”
Wondering how Fred got involved, Angel asked, “What’s she got to do with it?”
“Genius, remember? Fred helped me formulate my Angel seduction stratagem. Only you managed to elude all of my sure-fire attempts to get you to notice me,” Cordelia revealed with a laugh.
“Trust me, I noticed.”
“Then I discovered the secret weapon,” Cordelia reached behind her to pull up the blue top sheet tickling under his chin with the corner.
Trying to keep a straight face, Angel nodded, “Sheets.”
“Nine hundred thread count Egyptian cotton,” she sighed running her hand along the part of the sheet tucked between her breasts drawing his eyes there. Quipping, “No man can resist ‘em.”
Angel smirked in agreement, “Especially when they’re wrapped around you.”
End.